Improvement in spinning-jacks



UNITED STATES PATENT Citron.

GILBRETH DAWSON, OF ROCKVILLE, CONNECTICUT.

IMPROVEMENT IN SPlNNlNG-JACKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 56,532, dated July 24, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GILBRETI-I DAWSON, of

Rockville, in the county of Tolland and State,

of Connecticut, have invented a new and use ful Improvement in Spinning-Jacks 5 and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which I Figure 1 is an elevation of a section of so much of a spinning-jack as I have considered it necessary to show in order to illustrate my invention, the plane of section being seen at y, Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation looking toward the left from line wof Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a plan View.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

The object of this invention is to stop the roping or roving drums from slipping around or continuing their rotation after the ropinggear has been disconnected. Spinning-jacks, as commonly constructed, have no means applied to them to prevent the drums from turning after the power that drives them has been disconnected, except that in some instances a piece of leather is placed around the roller or else around the drums to produce friction. This device is not reliable, because the leather soon becomes greasy. v

The device which is the subject of this application consists, among other things, of a lever-brake resting on a pulley fixed on the drum-shaft in the middle of the jack, which lever-brake is operated by the carriage when it .is pushed in gear, the brake being then raised off from the pulley and remaining off until the roping-gear is thrown out, when it falls down and, by producingfriction on the pulley, checks the delivery of the roping at once.

Spinning-jacks, as now made and operated, let the roping or roving run out more or less after the roping gear is thrown out, and sometimes the drums slip around far enough thereafter to discharge two or three inches of roping in excess of the proper quantity at every draw of the carriage. In a jack with two hundred and forty spindles, with a batch of wool which is four-run roping whose proper weight is four runs fine, the eifect of this excess of roping is to cause the jack to run out about two pounds of wool excess in a'days work, with a slip on the drums of about two inches, thereby making uneven yarn, whereas if the drums had been stopped at the proper time the yarn would have been drawn down even. This defect in spinningjacks is overcome by my improvement.

In this example of my invention, A designates the brake. It consists of a lever hinged to the roller-beam G, from which it extends back past the headstock, having a weight, H, attached to its extremity to bring it down upon a pulley, B, placed on the drum-shaft M at the middle of the jack. That part of the lever which is over the pulley is curved to a halfcircle, and acts as a brake when it is allowed to come in contact with it. The pulley orbrake or both may be covered with rubber or leather or other suitable material.

The lever is supported and adjusted as to height by means of an inverted screw, I, which goes through a lug on its side at that part of it which is in line with the elbow-lever C, the head of the screw resting on the lower arm or horizontal part of the lever, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. This lever has its fulcrum at its angle E, where it is pivoted to the frame of the jack, and its horizontal or lower arm is brought down near to the floor, so that it may be reached and lifted by a shoe from the carriagetruck when the carriage is pushed in gear, at which time it is necessary to lift the brake until the roping-gear is thrown out.

The carriage is not here shown, but I have shown a shoe, D, which can be moved toward and from the elbow-lever in order to illustrate the manner of raising it.

The lower arm of the lever is not straight in this example, but is curved at that part which is acted on by the shoe D, and it is arched at that part on"which the head of screw I rests.

The other arm of the elbow-lever is upright, and is slotted near its top to receive a pin, N, that extends forward from the edge of the sliding bar J.

The slide J is supported by its ends in mortises made in the standards 0, the mortises being deep enough to allow the bar to be moved a little both toward the right and left.

WVhen the foot of the elbow-lever is raised by the shoe D the slideJ is moved toward the right (observing Fig. 2) against the spring F, which rises from the standard nearest the pin N, and passing through a slot in a fixed bar, J, engages a recess in the under side of slide J.

The bar J is placed beneath the slide J, being supported by the same standards 0, but is not movable in the standards.

When the slide J is moved toward the right, Fig.2, its angular lug L is brought against the head of a spring-latch, K, whose body lies in a recess made for it across the bar J and projects forward a little distance, as seen in Fig. 3, the head of the latch being held against the edge of bar J, and also against the edge of slide J, which it overlaps by a flat spring.

secured in arecess in the top of bar J, its free end engaging a notch in the edge of the latch. As the bar J continues this movement the latch is drawn backward until the lug or shoulder L has passed it, when the spring brings the latch forward again and locks the bar J.

So long as the bar J remains locked the arch of lever O is held up, and the brake remains off the drum-pulley; but so soon as the latch is pushed back to bring its head clear of the shoulder L, which is done automatically by devices (not shown) connected with the clock on the jack, the slide J is moved to the left, and the brake is allowed to rest on the pulley of the drum-shaft, thereby stopping its rotation.

The slide is usually operated in a jack by an index-gear, (not here shown,) and I have in this illustration employed a spring, F, to move it back so soon as the withdrawal of the latch allows it to do so. The brake is allowed to fall on the pulley so soon as the roping-gear is thrown out, and it will be observed that by the devices I have shown the drums, whose speed is too great to allow them to be suddenly stopped by a catch, will be stopped gradually, the weight H being adjusted according to the judgment of the operator.

My improvement can be applied to jacks which have not the elbow-lever G by connecting the arm of the brake by means of a wire and small elbow-lever to the slide, which in such jacks is worked by the clock on the jack.

It will be observed that my improvement is self operating, the carriage when it is pushed in gear raising the brake, which then is held up until the slideJ is returned to the left and allows the brake to fall on the pulley, the latter movement being made when the rovinggear is thrown out of action and the delivery of the roving is to be stopped to allow that already delivered to be drawn out by the carriage.

My invention can be carried out in difierent ways without departing from the principle thereof-as, for instance, the friction surface or brake, which is to be brought down on the pulley B, may consist of a strip of any suitable material-say of metal lined with leather such strip being made partly to encircle the pulley, and the end of the strip nearest the roller-beam being attached to the end of the horizontal arm of a right-angled lever whose vertical arm may be connected by a wire or rod to the lever O. This right-angled lever may be supported on a bracket from the rollerbeam, and its vertical arm should be drawn toward the beam and away from lever O by the constant pull of a spring that may be attached to said beam-say on its under surface.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. Stopping the roping-drums in spinningjacks from slipping around or continuing their rotation after the roping-gear has been thrown out by means of a brake acting automatically on a pulley placed on the drum-shaft, substair tially as described.

2. The brake-lever H, in combination with the elbow-lever O, substantially as described.

3. The combination of the brake, the lever O, and the shoe D, substantially as described.

4. The combination of the brake, the lever O, and the slide J, constructed and operated substantially as described.

GILBRETH DAWSON.

Witnesses ALBERT PHILLIPS, E. N. Foo'rE. 

